Petition Opponents Call for Signature Submission

The Coalition for Arlington Good Government (CAGG), formed to actively oppose a proposed change in Arlington County’s form of government, is calling on supporters of the change-of-government referendum to submit the signatures they have gathered early.

Citing an ARLnow.com story in which a volunteer signature-gatherer commented that supporters have already gathered the necessary 14,350 signatures, CAGG co-chair Alan Howze wrote:

In the interest of good government and transparency, we call upon the referendum proponents to immediately submit the petitions that they have collected to Arlington’s Voter Registrar for review. Submitting the signatures now will not change the outcome, but further delays by referendum supporters in submitting petition signatures will impose additional expenses on Arlington taxpayers for overtime labor.

An earlier article by the Sun Gazette revealed that submitting all the signatures at once at the July 15 deadline could result in delays and extra expense for the county.

It used to be that opponents of a petition like this would have access to copies of the petitions so they could verify and challenge fraudulent or out of county signatures. However, pending the Supreme Court’s review of whether petitioners have a right to privacy, the SBE has decided to prevent access to petitions during this cycle (which is a mistake in my view, as I really can’t imagine that the SC would overturn centuries of common-law precedent on the topic).

That’s a big deal especially here when paid petition collectors are in use (who also are supposed to be from Arlington if memory serves), and puts even more pressure on the Registar’s office.

Skeptical

On the other hand, this “call for transparency” comes unanimously from people who have something to lose — nothing less than their whole political way of life — if the petition is verified and its backers succeed in making their a case to the voters. I catch a whiff of “we’re messing with you because we can.”

ArlingtonAaron

Sure… there are those of us who think that this change could undermine many aspects of what makes Arlington the best place to live in the country… so if you’re going to damage that, the least you can do is follow the rules.

Mike

They are following the rules. They are submitting the petition before the required deadline.

ArlingtonAaron

We’ll find that out when the signatures are checked against Arlington county residency… 10% of the population of the county is a pretty high bar, especially since I’ve yet to see a signature collector.

John Antonelli

That says a lot Aaron. I note it takes 14K to get an initiative on the ballot in Arlington, but 12K Statewide to run for Senate. What does that say of the dictatorship of the People’s Republic of Arlington, the most undemocratic Democratic bastion in the USA.

Bottom line the signatures will be provided in accordance with the law and hopefully the SC will agree to keep the names private so that the privacy of the people who know its fine to sign won’t be harassed by you and your goons like you have been doing at the local supermarkets. Undemocratic Democrats at their dictatorial best (or worst).

Thes

What legitimate reason do the proponents have for making life harder for the Registrar like this?

Mike

If the Registrar can’t handle their job, then they should be fired.

Thes

So the answer apparently is: None. Plus a character attack.

Mike

How dense can you be? The only rules that have to be followed are the laws for filing. Why should this organization make it easier for the anti-democracy crowd and their lapdog civil servants?

And if you can’t fulfill your job functions you should be fired. But don’t worry, I’m sure the CB will spend oodles of money to lawyer up and challenge every signature.

Thes

Every week, the CBA people are spending more hard-earned union dues to collect more and more signatures. Why are they doing this if they already have enough? If it’s “just to be sure” then there’s another way to be sure: give their petitions to the Registrar and ask. Right now they’re wasting their own members money, and later they will be wasting the taxpayer’s money. Why are they doing this? What are they hiding?

ObserverCollege

Look, it would be dumb to turn in the signatures before July 15. Why give the Registrar and the opponents extra time to figure out which signatures are illegitimate? Why give them time to figure out where there are any forgeries? If you wait until the 15th, the pressure to “finish the job” will just result in the lazy temp workers saying “all right, fine, they’re legit, leave me alone”.’

If I’m running the petition, I’d much rather have these temps doing the reviews, rather than experienced Arlington County who know how to review a petition.

A Resident

Actually, if they were smart they would turn them in as early as possible before the deadline. If large numbers of signatures are rejected, they would still have time to gather more before the deadline. Of course, if the supporters had that kind of common sense, they wouldn’t be pushing this short sighted, ill-conceived petition.

ObserverCollege

Oh, and you ninnies who whine about the collectors being “non-residents”? Get over yourselves. Why do you hate the First Amendment? Why do you hate America?

Look, at the bottom of the petition page, you are going to see an Arlington resident’s name, address and signature. That person will attest to collecting the signatures. Whether s/he did or not doesn’t matter, now does it? What matters is that s/he is recorded as collecting the signatures.

Oh, what, you’re going to claim there’s “perjury” being committed? Who are you going to complain to? The Arlington County POLICE??? A.G. Cuccinelli??? ROTFLMAO!!!

ArlingtonAaron

So the paid signature collectors are having their petition affidavits signed falsely by Arlington residents, and that’s OK because they won’t be caught by the Registrar’s office staff because they will be short on time and using under-trained staff because the signatures will deliberately be put in at the last minute.

Yep. I totally want these folks running Arlington County. Sounds like a much better governing philosophy than the path that has made Arlington the best place to live in the country. Yep.

ArlingtonAaron

Also seems like this would be grounds for Petition opponents to try to overturn in court the SBE’s decision to keep the petitions private: community scrutiny of election records has always been a cornerstone of the voting security in this country, and when such obvious crimes are being committed the highest level of transparency seems warranted.

John Antonelli

Aaron if you know of fraud being conducted in this campaign contact the Commonwealth’s Attorney or keep quiet because if you don’t YOU can find yourself under the scrutiny of Dick Trodden for misprison of a felony. So which is it Aaron??

MB

I’ve seen the signature collectors. In fact, I listened to them discuss how to fraudulently obtain drivers licenses, avoid getting taken to jail for driving without a license, and a lack of interest in VA voter reg drives because one doesn’t want to disclose an out of state felony conviction. Nevermind claims of being “high half the time” while attesting to the signatures they collected for a CA ballot initiative.

And these are the kind of people the Arlington GOP is relying on to advance its position.

Efrem Hornbostle

The boneheads over at the Coalition for Arlington Good Government (CAGG) want the names of those that signed the petition released early for one simple reason:

They want to smear those that signed the petition, especially fellow Democrats and county employees and/or threaten the folks to the point they’d seek to have their names possibly removed by July 15.

CAGG is nothing more than an ACDC front group and this newest stunt has the ACDC written all over it.

The CAGG “additional expense” concern is complete BS. When were these communists ever concerned about “additional expense” throughout the County Board budget charade?

March on my fellow Arlington friends, the progressive communists are getting pretty nervous.

ArlingtonAaron

You seem very confused. Under the ruling of the SBE that keeps the petitions from being released to the public, submitting the signatures won’t release the names to the public at all… whether that is done at the deadline or if existing signatures are submitted now to be reviewed.

cj

Update re public access to submitted petitions: The Arlington registrar announced Monday that a more senior policy official at SBE advised her that public disclosure of petition signatures is discretionary, at least until the Supreme Court rules in Doe v. Reed from Washington State. The registrar therefore has stated that after a petition page has been reviewed by her staff, it will be available for public inspection, as long as the disclosure process does not interfere with her primary obligation of validating the signatures.

Even if a Court ruling restricts access to the names of petition signers, the names and addresses of circulators should be available for public scrutiny.

As for “under-trained staff” and “lazy temps” in the registrar’s office, I know several of those people. They are very well trained, extremely conscientious, and I suspect would be energized by the personal and professional challenge of being pushed to check thousands of names in a huge stack of petitions in a very short time.

ArlingtonAaron

cj, that’s great news, and hopefully that stand will stand up to scrutiny… though if it doesn’t I’m wondering how much good the names of the circulators will do when its pretty clear that the paid out of towners have been handing their petitions over to locals to sign.

Skeptical

I have a suggestion. Let the County government be required to mount a petition drive to place the following question on the ballot:

“Shall the County dedicate $60 million of taxpayer money, or roughly $275 per Arlington resident, to the construction of a trolley serving Columbia Pike?”

Then, if the question reaches the ballot, let them agree to abide by the voters’ decision.

My point being that plenty of decisions about the future of Arlington and the use of our taxpayer dollars slide right by voters because, while voting our political predilections — tending toward blue — we’ve allowed a small group of mutually supportive office holders and their supporters to determine the way life here goes for everyone. We are populous enough now that push-back against locally questionable policies deserves more representation at 2100 Clarendon that a hat-in-hand plea from some local civic association.

A Resident

The trolley question will be on the ballot in November in the form of the bond referendum. The bonds that the County sells to fund these capital projects are approved by the voters every two years. If you don’t like the trolley, vote against the bond. Put efforts into mounting a campaign against the bond, or against the Board member up for re-election this year, Chris Zimmerman. Incumbents in Arlington get re-elected by such wide margins because the majority of voters who show up to vote are happy with them. Arlington is a very Democratic county, and changing the form of government won’t change that. Credible opponents with a real platform that resonates with Arlingtonians is the only way to change that, and apparently the Republicans and Greens haven’t been able to produce one of those in quite a while.

John Antonelli

The Trolley will not be on the ballot as part of a bond referendum. The money for the trolley is supposed to come from the Federal government. I sit on the transit advisory committee and there has been no discussion of a trolley referendum. Now in Arlington they put unpopular things in a big referendum bundle with things that everyone wants as a way of getting the unpopular things passed.

Efrem Hornbostle

The Progressives Have Ruined Arlington Just Like Obama Is Destroying America

Rat vermin corrupted Boss Tweed-Obama and his corrupted Tammany Hall regime is finally being exposed. Otraitor is a man-child emperor-with-no-clothes. He is a rat vermin traitor with a plummeting popularity rating because he hates America, hates freedom and hates liberty. He works for Goldman Sachs and the banking oligarchs along with Dodd and Frank. He supports expanded wars – but strangely Soros funded Code Pink and Media Matters are silent for this baby-dictator Obama. Obama is weak and the world is destabilizing, he is a slave to the oligarchical collectivists and rules our population with an iron fist with a velvet glove. Obama coddles terrorists, Iran, MS13 gangs, Mexican Narco-State Drug Czars and criminals with sanctuary and open borders.. He cracks down on the middle class – the law abiding tax paying child bearing middle class whom he considers subjects in his regime. His IRS has audited at a rate 300% above normal. His census is a Nazi-like info-gathering attempt. He has outspent all previous presidents in one year. He is big brother, he is a traitor and he is a little man child moron figurehead empty suit that acts childish and thin skinned because he is uneducated. Sure he was indoctrinated with progressive trash, but given what he says and thinks he is a stupid uneducated failure of a man that could not hunt, grow food for himself, nor even change his tire. He knows nothing of math, history, physics or chemistry, his ideas are idiot Alinsky eructations and regurgitations, his speech capability without a teleprompter is pathetic and he is one of the stupidest people to ever grace the Office of the President. This moron man-child Otraitor looks and acts like a thin skinned loser. He is a disgusting traitor and a progressive rat that will rot in hell. This Obama regime is the modern Boss Tweed Tammany Hall. The depraved nature of the Democrat party and its hidden progressive-Marxist agenda has been a cancer on America for well over a 100 years now, and today, the main stream media is controlled by the progressives so we don’t have Thomas Nast drawings exposing what this rat vermin Obama is doing.

Is it any wonder America that this poser, this teleprompter-in-chief is totally unqualified for the highest job in the land. This man child will be steering our country’s course for 2 more years. God help us. Remember November!!!

Charles Foster Kane

It takes a strong stomach to make it all the way through “Efrem Hombostle’s” three paragraphs of spittle-flecked invective. Better to stop at his opening sentence, which (quite by accident, I’m certain) contains a kernel of truth:

President Obama is working to promote the same sense of community that the “ruinous” progressives have achieved in Arlington: a place where people are judged by the “content of their character” and their willingness to help make their community a better place.

By any objective standard Arlington is one of the best places in the nation to live, work, and raise a family. If President Obama is able to foster nationally the kind of inclusive, forward-looking society that the “ruinous” progressives champion in Arlington, his presidency will be successful beyond his supporters’ greatest hopes.

diana

*thumbs up!*

CAGG

CAGG Undercover Field Report-1

Scott McCaffrey, editor of the Arlington Sun Gazette, was documented pumping $12.72 of regular gas from the BP Station at 1625 Wilson Blvd. We will investigate if his relationship with BP has any influence on his reporting of the change-in-government effort. Stay tuned with our weekend undercover report on Saturday.

CAGG

CAGG Undercover Field Report-2

County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman (D) farted at 10:33am this morning and Alan House recorded it at 347 decibels. Mr. House is reluctant to report it to the government because he is not sure if there is a government entity that Mr. Zimmerman put in place to regulate it. Stay tuned for progressive democrat updates since the ACDC may get involved with this sound pollution matter.

Marty

To Mr. Kane above:
Arlington may be a great place to live and raise children since $.50 of every tax dollar goes to the school system. It is not a good place to stay after one retires. Every type of fee or tax with Arlington County has increased. If one is on a fixed income you just cannot afford to stay here. So, it has become a great place to live for Democrats, Yuppies, DINKS, bicyclists (who pay no tax or fees for their vehicles) and singletons. Oh, let us not forget to add the illegal immigrants since Arlington is a “shelter community.”

diana

I’m sorry you have so much disdain about living in Arlington. Perhaps, its time for you to move. That’s what I did when I realized the last placed I moved to was changing into the type of place I did not want to live in. I moved. And cyclists are charged for their vehicles because their vehicles don’t require the state to shell out millions and millions of dollars each year to maintain roads and traffic signals. They also don’t take up no where near the amount of public space cars do, nor do they pollute the air. And, do you know why so much money goes into schools? Because communities with good school systems, thrive financially. Families bring in money. Just like Arlington has. Communities with poor school systems don’t, look at DC for an example.

CAGG

CAGG Undercover Field Report-3

CAGG Senior Undercover Progressive Field Agent Alan House just reported that Jay Fisette walked out of a Dunkin Donuts with a female this evening at 9:43pm and stopped at a yellow light on Wilson Blvd. to ascertain if it was safe to cross the street. House reported that he’s not certain whether Fisette had jelly or chocolate donuts in the bag he had at his wayside.

Efrem Hornbostle

The Progressives Have Ruined Arlington Just Like Obama Is Destroying America

Rat vermin corrupted Boss Tweed-Obama and his corrupted Tammany Hall regime is finally being exposed. Otraitor is a man-child emperor-with-no-clothes. He is a rat vermin traitor with a plummeting popularity rating because he hates America, hates freedom and hates liberty. He works for Goldman Sachs and the banking oligarchs along with Dodd and Frank. He supports expanded wars – but strangely Soros funded Code Pink and Media Matters are silent for this baby-dictator Obama.

Obama is weak and the world is destabilizing, he is a slave to the oligarchical collectivists and rules our population with an iron fist with a velvet glove. Obama coddles terrorists, Iran, MS13 gangs, Mexican Narco-State Drug Czars and criminals with sanctuary and open borders.. He cracks down on the middle class – the law abiding tax paying child bearing middle class whom he considers subjects in his regime. His IRS has audited at a rate 300% above normal. His census is a Nazi-like info-gathering attempt. He has outspent all previous presidents in one year. He is big brother, he is a traitor and he is a little man child moron figurehead empty suit that acts childish and thin skinned because he is uneducated. Sure he was indoctrinated with progressive trash, but given what he says and thinks he is a stupid uneducated failure of a man that could not hunt, grow food for himself, nor even change his tire. He knows nothing of math, history, physics or chemistry, his ideas are idiot Alinsky eructations and regurgitations, his speech capability without a teleprompter is pathetic and he is one of the stupidest people to ever grace the Office of the President.

This moron man-child Otraitor looks and acts like a thin skinned loser. He is a disgusting traitor and a progressive rat that will rot in hell. This Obama regime is the modern Boss Tweed Tammany Hall. The depraved nature of the Democrat party and its hidden progressive-Marxist agenda has been a cancer on America for well over a 100 years now, and today, the main stream media is controlled by the progressives so we don’t have Thomas Nast drawings exposing what this rat vermin Obama is doing.

Is it any wonder America that this poser, this teleprompter-in-chief is totally unqualified for the highest job in the land. This man child will be steering our country’s course for 2 more years. God help us. Remember November!!!

Charles Foster Kane:
June 12, 2010 at 5:32 pm

It takes a strong stomach to make it all the way through “Efrem Hombostle’s” three paragraphs of spittle-flecked invective. Better to stop at his opening sentence, which (quite by accident, I’m certain) contains a kernel of truth:

President Obama is working to promote the same sense of community that the “ruinous” progressives have achieved in Arlington: a place where people are judged by the “content of their character” and their willingness to help make their community a better place.

By any objective standard Arlington is one of the best places in the nation to live, work, and raise a family. If President Obama is able to foster nationally the kind of inclusive, forward-looking society that the “ruinous” progressives champion in Arlington, his presidency will be successful beyond his supporters’ greatest hopes.

WOW. These progressive Arlington libtards seem to all suffer from a narcissistic superiority disorder. They know better than everyone else how to live elite progressive lives and want all others to simply accept and adjust towards their socialist dictate.

These folks are running scared because their power over Arlington politics is in trouble. It’s the first time in 80 years that Arlington Democrats are being forced to look at themselves in the mirroer being held in front of them by the people they’ve used and abused – the taxpayers of Arlington that are sick and tired of this progressive crap being forced upon them.